"Recently the Georgetown Library has released the Georgetown and Acton newspapers in a digital, completely searchable form. The official launch was last week, with an article in our local paper yesterday.

I thought perhaps this is something that you might like to use in an upcoming newsletter. It is an absolutely marvellous tool, now allowing one to take hours reading one newspaper instead of a quick trip to check the microfilm at the library :)

It is addictive to anyone interested in local history."

On behalf of Global Gazette readers, our thanks to Dawn for letting us know about this useful resource.

January 31, 2011 update to article:

Bob Crawford, Chair of the Halton Peel Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society provided some additional information about the digital newspaper project:

"Halton-Peel Branch OGS financially supported this project with a focused donation of almost $15,000 to the Halton Hills Public Library. This puts Halton Hills newspapers in the forefront of the digitization project for Halton.

The funds for the donation came partly from a bequest to the Branch that was to be directed at providing genealogical resources to the area and partly from the profits earned by the Branch's hard work at OGS Conference 2009 in Oakville.

In addition to this project we sponsored the publication of a book entitled Journey To The Past: The Lost Villages of Mississauga by Heritage Mississauga to provide the history of approximately 31 small villages in the old Toronto Township of Peel County that now are part of the City of Mississauga. Most of these villages are not visible today. Copies of this book are available from Heritage Mississauga or Halton-Peel Branch OGS."